For nearly a monthlong span, UCLA wasn’t the best team in its own city, losing twice to Southern California in conference play.
But after defeating USC in the Big Ten championship, the Bruins (30-2) regained Los Angeles bragging rights — and on Sunday, they earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Women’s Tournament for the first time in program history.
South Carolina (30-3) is a No. 1 seed in the Women’s NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season as it seeks back-to back national championships. The selection committee, which huddled in Indianapolis, gave the Gamecocks the No. 2 overall seed.
Joining the Bruins and Gamecocks on the top line, revealed Sunday night on the tournament selection show, are overall No. 3 Texas (31-3) and No. 4 USC (28-3).
A case could be made for the committee installing South Carolina as the No. 1 overall seed, but committee chair Derita Dawkins told ESPN the group had two deciding factors.
“One was the head-to-head matchup and the other was — one of our criteria was competitive in losses — and South Carolina suffered a 29-point loss to UConn. Those were the two key differences in those results.”
Then-No. 1 South Carolina lost to then-No. 5 UCLA 77-62 on Nov. 24 in Los Angeles.
Questions likely also will be asked about why USC took the No. 1 seed over UConn, which was seeded No. 2 in the same quadrant. The two conceivably could meet in a regional final for the second straight year, as they did when the Huskies won in 2024.
First-round games begin Friday at the home venues of the top 16 seeds — one through four in each of the four regional brackets — with second-round games also being played at those arenas. Regionals will be played in two neutral sites once the Sweet 16 begins, with half the teams headed to Birmingham, Ala., and the remainder to Spokane, Wash.
The Final Four is set for April 4 in Tampa, Fla., with the championship game to be played April 6.
Dawkins said her committee seeded the No. 1 teams as they deserved without considering how they might line up in case all four No. 1s advanced.
UCLA was assigned to the Spokane 1 Region and USC to the Spokane 4. South Carolina is in the Birmingham 2 Region, and Texas in the Birmingham 3.
The winners of the regions in each city will square off in the Final Four, meaning UCLA and USC — and South Carolina and Texas — could meet again for the fourth time.
Dawkins said she wasn’t concerned the fans would be bored by such rematches.
“Fans want to see good basketball and they’re going to see that,” Dawkins said. “I think the teams deserve to be seeded and bracketed according to the work they’ve done all year on the court, and that’s what we did.”
Six teams are making their debut in the NCAA Tournament: Arkansas State, FDU, George Mason, Grand Canyon, UC San Diego and William & Mary.
Selection Sunday also spelled the continuation of the tournament run for one legendary program and the end for another.
Tennessee, an eight-time national champion from 1987-2008, has appeared in every NCAA Tournament since the event’s debut in 1982 — the only program to do so. The Volunteers (22-9) earned a No. 5 seed and will meet No. 12 South Florida on Friday in Columbus, Ohio.
Stanford, a three-time national champion (1990, 1992, 2021) saw its 36-year streak of tournament play end. The Cardinal, who finished 16-14 in their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, had played in every tournament since 1988.
–Field Level Media
